In the semiconductor industry, substrates are becoming larger and larger and so do the systems for processing the substrates, such as e.g. lithography systems, optical inspection devices, etc.
This may concern substrate handling components, light source components, components of an electron beam source or of a measurement sensor, or a combination of such components. For maintenance purposes, it is necessary to lift the respective system component and to displace it laterally in order to get access to the devices or components located therebelow or to inspect the displaced component itself.
For this purpose, mobile maintenance cranes are mostly used in practice. Such cranes are cumbersome to operate, and it is often difficult to access the relevant system components. In particular it is often necessary to first move away several system components in order to reach an underlying system component.
This accordingly causes cost-intensive downtimes of the system. Furthermore, there is the risk of contamination or damage to the system or components thereof. Moreover, depending on for example the weight, shape, and position of the system and of the system components to be moved, measures have to be taken to ensure safety and ergonomics compliance for the maintenance personnel performing the work.
Published patent application US 2013/0088702 A2 discloses a lifting assembly for a module of a lithography device, which is integrated into the system and therefore is said to have the advantage of shorter maintenance times. A drawback of this assembly is that it is not very flexible and is an integral component of the system, i.e. the lifting assembly described in the document is individually manufactured for a specific lifting task and it is difficult to flexibly employ such an assembly for lifting different system parts.